


Worth It

by through-the-stars-to-the-pavement (delicate_mageflower)



Series: Fire and Sword [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (those are all pretty minor though), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Hundred Year War - Freeform, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sokka deserves happiness, Sokka has a heart as strong as a lion-turtle and twice as big, Sokka's trauma needs comforting too, Swords, Zukka Week 2021
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 16:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30041229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicate_mageflower/pseuds/through-the-stars-to-the-pavement
Summary: Zuko reunites Sokka with an old friend, as well as a (sort of) new one.[Zukka Week 2021, Day 1:Swords///Fake Dating]
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Fire and Sword [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2209962
Comments: 34
Kudos: 82





	Worth It

Sokka has nightmares, too.

He dreams a lot about the war’s end, about the comet-powered firebenders and the airship and Toph and…

“Bye, Space Sword,” Sokka mutters in his sleep.

Zuko knows that comes to him at night because it was such an integral part of the moment he thought for sure he and Toph were about to die. He was going to drop her, he was going to send her to a brutal fiery fate, and then the most likely scenario was that he would be forced to follow her.

(“If I was lucky,” he’ll sometimes say. “It wasn’t your fault,” anyone and everyone will tell him in return. He never listens.)

But it’s not only that, Zuko knows. Maybe the others don’t understand, but Zuko does.

That sword meant so much to Sokka. Zuko hasn’t heard him talk much about it, but it was more than just a weapon to him; it was a symbol of his potential, of what it was like to have someone truly _believe in him._ Sokka’s time with Master Piandao may have been short, but it had meant everything to him and losing that sword felt like losing what little (to Sokka’s mind) there was of Sokka’s capabilities.

Hearing Sokka tonight, feeling him writhe and whimper, Zuko decides it’s time he sends a letter.

It’s a gamble. But it isn’t. It doesn’t feel like one, anyway. Zuko is hopeful. For Sokka, he will be hopeful.

***

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.”

Sokka crosses his arms and rolls his eyes, and Zuko just kisses his cheek before they ascend upon the eelhound they’re taking for their journey, sneaking out in the middle of the night in disguise so Zuko’s guard won’t refuse to let him leave like this.

(He left a note on the throne informing anyone who finds it he hasn’t been kidnapped or assassinated, it’s no big deal. He’s going to be torn a new asshole upon their return all the same, yes, but it unequivocally will have been worth it.)

“This is _highly_ suspicious,” Sokka grumbles.

“Just trust me, my love.” And Sokka smiles at the term of endearment, dropping all protestations.

He’s just grumpy he was dragged out of bed at whatever cursed hour this is. Zuko can’t hold that against him. It’ll be alright, though.

It will have been worth it.

***

Sokka is exhausted by the time they arrive at the gates, bleary eyed and unable to focus. They’d made camp once along the way, but they didn’t stay long because Zuko being Fire Lord makes the risk too high to sleep outside the way they used to, and who could blame Sokka for having grown accustomed to the cushy Fire Palace beds?

He recognizes the large red doors, though, and the lotus symbol which greets them before the butler.

“Master Sokka. Fire Lord Zuko. Master Piandao has been expecting you.”

Sokka’s eyes widen.

 _“Master_ Sokka?” he whispers to Zuko, who smiles at him in response.

“Well, if it isn’t my best student,” Piandao says to Sokka’s bewildered expression as he bows to him. “Now, I do believe I remember where we left off in our lessons.”

Sokka flounders, ready to apologize for the fact he lost that beautiful, brilliant sword years ago, to chastise himself for not being at all what Piandao had seen in him. As far as he’s concerned, the only special thing that had come out of those two days was his beloved Space Sword, and sure Sokka has kept up with his training, regularly sparring with Zuko, but it’s never been the same.

And then Piandao's butler kneels before Sokka, extending him a very familiar sight.

“A gift,” he says.

Zuko is smiling so wide watching them, his face looks as though it’s about to crack.

“I never could have parted with what was left of such an incredible, unique material,” Piandao explains. “Plenty enough for another blade for such an incredible, unique swordsman.”

And the way Sokka beams holding his new weapon in his hands, watching the way it glimmers in the midday sun through the windows, the light in Sokka’s eyes unlike anything Zuko has been before—

This was worth every lost moment of rest throughout the night, and every word of grief Zuko is going to get from his staff upon their return.

 _Sokka_ is worth it, and if that means trekking out to see who may be the only person in the world who could possibly get him to believe that, then Zuko would do it a million times over without question.

“Space Sword the Second,” Sokka declares with genuine enthusiasm in the guest bedroom with Zuko, after a long and arduous (yet filled with Piandao’s praise) first day of training. “Welcome home, buddy.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this day-of as quickly as I could and without any prior planning on AO3 directly and at one point the site just reloaded out of nowhere and I lost what I'd written because I am a dumbass but hey, so basically don't judge me too hard based on this fic alone.


End file.
